


Worth Anything

by Leni



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Life outside Storybrooke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 04:43:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9162502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: What if Belle and Rumpelstiltskin left Storybrooke?No S4.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheStraggletag](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStraggletag/gifts).



> Prompt: soulmates

The world outside Storybrooke had been supposed to give them some breathing space. No more having the whole town grow tense when they visited any public space, always expecting the Dark One to show his true colors; no more pitying glances when Belle insisted they were happy together.

Moving to New York should have equaled the respite of anonymity. Just another couple making a new life in the big city.

But one never knew what they had until it was lost.

There were _so many people_ here. Even if only one in twenty took notice, their reaction was always similar - the double-take, the smirk as they cast her as a gold-digger or him as a cradle-robber, the disgusted little head shake even as they disappeared back into the crowd never to be seen again. After a few weeks, even Belle thought twice before going out for a stroll with her husband.

In Storybrooke, she had confronted the doubters and, if not convinced them that their assumptions were wrong, at least they had eventually given up on voicing their opinion, thinking her a lost cause.

Belle had thought taking on the whole town had been exhausting. It was nothing to the helplessness of watching complete strangers pass judgment and being unable to do more than to keep her chin up high.

Some nights, she played with the thought of returning to Maine.

There, if she and Rumpelstiltskin weren’t well-liked, it was for concrete reasons. Decades worth of stories about the Dark One and his dread deals. The collective bafflement at the woman who had chosen him. Those were arguments Belle could refute, or wait for time to make her point.

In New York, no one cared about the truth.

People here saw only an older man with a pretty thing on his arm, and believed they knew the facts already. Storybrooke might have been afraid of Rumpelstiltskin and concerned for Belle’s well-being, but no one had doubted that they were True Love.

“They don’t even believe in True Love,” Belle whispered. “All this talk about soulmates and happily ever after in their stories, but they can’t recognize it when they come across it!”

Rumpelstiltskin laced his fingers through hers. In this, he was the calm one. He had cared little for people’s opinions in Storybrooke, and not at all in New York. He was the picture of relaxation as they wandered through the parks and streets, the looks that grated at Belle’s patience meriting not even a raised eyebrow from him. “People can be ignorant, my dear.”

“It really doesn’t bother you?”

He arranged himself so he could kiss her forehead. “It bothers me to see you so upset,” he said, frowning a little. “Do you…. do you want to go back home?”

Belle shook her head. Storybrooke might be the more comfortable option for her, but in truth their reason to leave had not been the people but the magic that permeated the very air in town. Rumpelstiltskin was more himself when he didn’t need to be looking over his shoulder at every step, when there were leagues and days of travel between himself and those who’d avail themselves of his power. In Storybrooke there had been no getaway for him to retreat and drop the mask of the ruthless dealer, no time to sit back and enjoy his more quiet pastimes when he must present the face of the busy, plotting wizard at every turn.

Rumpelstiltskin was more complex than the image Storybrooke had of him. Belle had fallen in love with him because he was a man of many interests, just as likely to lose himself into a debate of history as he remembered it versus how it had been taught to Belle, as to teach her how to pluck a chicken and a dozen ways to prepare it.

But where, during their time in the Dark Castle, he had trusted her with that softer side - or, Belle reasoned, at least trusted that her enforced solitude would forbid any gossip - in Storybrooke he couldn’t afford to let the people think him anything but the all-powerful demon who could ruin their lives at any provocation.

Bad enough that the power of the Dark One’s dagger was common knowledge. Only the most foolish would try to grab it for themselves when Rumpelstiltskin acted as if he was still their worst nightmares come to life.

Belle had hated that mask. She’d missed the man she loved. Occasionally cruel and ever pragmatic, but still willing to listen to her. Storybrooke couldn’t be allowed to see the Dark One bend for his wife, less she was taken as his weakness and targeted accordingly.

Belle _understood_ that, but she didn’t think she could have let him keep her at the edges of his life for much longer.

If they returned to Storybrooke, nothing would have changed.

“No,” she told him, squeezing his hand. “We stay. It’s not too bad, Rumple, really. I’ve just… had a bad day.”

Rumpelstiltskin’s hand drifted up and down her arm comfortingly. “Whatever you want, Belle. We will do it.”

“I know,” Belle said, turning for a soft kiss.

Even that brief touch made her insides tingle with magic. Perhaps it was the force of habit, months and months of having the power of True Love course through her. Perhaps there was a thimbleful of magic in this world too, and she was familiar enough with the feeling to recognize it in this diluted form.

Illusion or truth, it felt real.

“We’re staying.” she told her husband. Rumpelstiltskin was comfortable in their new life, and reason told her that he was right to disregard the opinion of strangers. “I’m just being silly, I know that.”

He frowned. “Not silly. You just… care too much. I understand that, sweetheart.”

Belle wrapped an arm around him, brushing his nose with hers before she kissed it. “Well, I care about you more, okay?”

His delighted smile was worth anything. “Okay.”

 

The End  
02/01/17

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love.
> 
> *points to comment box*


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